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Saturday, 10 July 2010

Ajax AmsterdamTotal Football and the Barcelona Cantera

Team Espana is basically Barcelona plus 4. De Toekomst, the Ajax Amsterdam academy, enrols 200 boys at a time from the ages of 7 to 19. The emphasis is on passing accuracy and movement. La Maisa, Barcelona's cantera, also developed Argentina's Lionel Messi who arrived at the age of 14.

A striking characteristic of many of modern Spain's finest players is their height: the national team's preferred front five would include Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, and Villa, all of them under 6 feet.

English football's failure is the prioritisation of physique in identifying talent, ie "How tall is the player?"(Ian Hawkey-The Sunday Times)